Wisconsin Deposit Account Rates and Deals

Associated Bank is offering up to a $150 bonus for opening a checking account and performing specific activities. The offer ends on April 20, 2010. Refer to the bank's promotion page for the full details. Requirements for the bonus include:

• Open a new qualifying personal checking account (excludes Free and Student) by 4/20/2010
• $50 with your first check order and completion of five debit card signature purchases
• $50 with your enrollment in Online Bill Pay and completing three bill payment transactions
• $50 with a regular direct deposit of your payroll check

Some important small print includes:

• Limited to one bonus per household
• Minimum opening deposit of at least $100 is required to obtain a bonus
• All qualifying activity must occur within 60 days of account opening to obtain applicable bonus
• The bonus will be deposited into your new checking account within 90 days of account opening
• Checking account must remain open and active with a minimum of five transactions monthly to receive bonus payment

Two important things to note about this promotion:

1. The free checking does not qualify so you'll have to watch out for fees. Monthly fees can be avoided in the Advantage Checking with direct deposit or with a $500 minimum balance.
2. The first $50 requires that you order checks which are not free

There's an online application on the promo page. However, the application states that they are only able to open checking accounts for persons residing in Wisconsin, Illinois, or Minnesota.

Branches are located in several cities in Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota including Madison, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Chicago, Peoria, Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Rochester.

Associated Bank has been a FDIC member since 1934 (FDIC Certificate # 5296).

Credit for this find goes to Fatwallet member sideout who mentioned it in this FW thread.

Other Bank Bonuses

Refer to the Bank Bonus page for other bonuses at banks and credit unions around the nation.

Legacy Bank is offering two competitive CD specials. The best one is a 2.90% APY 25-month CD. The other one is a 1.90% APY 13-month CD. Minimum deposit is $2,500, and the maximum is $95,000. The money market special has 1.75% APY for balances of $10,000 guaranteed for the first 90 days. These specials and rates are listed on the bank's home page as of 2/02/2010.

There's an online application, but in the middle of the first application page it states that you may be required to physically come into the bank to open any deposit accounts.

It's a small one-office bank located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The bank's ratings for safety and soundness are a little weak: 2 stars (problematic) at BauerFinancial and 2 stars (below peer group) at Bankrate.com. Both ratings are based on 9/30/09 financial data. The bank has been a FDIC member since 1999 (FDIC Certificate # 34818).

As I've been reporting, banks are trying new ways to encourage customers to use their debit cards with the credit (signature-based) option. High-yield reward checking is one way, and this mostly benefits those with larger balances ($25K or more). The larger banks have tried reward checking that rewards with cash back rather than high interest rates. M&I Bank is the latest example with their Cash Back Checking.

In addition to the cash-back features, M&I Bank is offering a $100 cash bonus for opening their Cash Back Checking Account. Offer is scheduled to last until 2/12/2010. Here's the small print of the offer:

Simply open an M&I Cash Back Checking account by February 12, 2010. To receive your $100 you must make five qualifying** purchases with your M&I Bank Check Card within the first 45 days after account opening. Your account will be reviewed 45 days after opening. The $100 cash bonus will be paid within 2 weeks of that review if the requirement above has been met. Offer applies to new accounts opened with new money not currently on deposit with M&I Bank, no exceptions. One bonus per household ever 12 months. Cannot be combined with other offers.

Note, qualifying purchases requires signature-based purchases with the debit card.

Here's the summary of the cash back features of this checking account:

• 0.25% cash back bonus based on the total amount of your net signature-based M&I Bank Check Card purchases made during the statement cycle.
• $0.25 for a deposit up to a maximum of $2 per statement cycle (8 deposits)
• $0.25 for each monthly online statement
• $0.05 for automatic payments deducted from your account (Online Bill Payment, internal M&I loan payment and ACH debit) up to a maximum of $2 per statement cycle (40 payments)

Note, high-yield reward checking accounts often require the above activity to qualify for the high yield. For those with small balances, the above cash-back features could earn you more than high interest rate.

One downside to the Cash Back Checking is the potential of a $10 monthly maintenance fee which would eliminate the benefits of the above rewards. The bank lists these three options to avoid this fee:

• making 3 transactions per statement cycle
• maintaining $1,000 minimum average daily balance in the account
• if you are under the age of 25

The offer appears to only be available where M&I Bank has branches. You need to enter your zip code if you apply online, and it'll tell you if you're not in their market area. According to their branch locator, the states where they have branches include: Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada and Wisconsin. Most of the branches are located in Wisconsin which is where their headquarters is located.

M&I is a large regional bank with $51.6 billion in assets. It has been a FDIC member since 1934 (FDIC Certificate # 1020).

Credit for this find goes to FW member buyerbware who posted it on this FW thread.

Community Bank and Trust is offering a high-yield reward checking account called Power Interest Checking. It has the following rates and features if certain monthly requirements are met:

• 3.05% APY on balances up to $25,000
• 0.50% on portion of balance between $25,000 and $100,000
• 0.25% on portion of balance above $100,000
• 0.10% base rate if requirements are not met

The monthly requirements include:

• 12 debit card purchases (signature-based)
• 1 ACH direct deposit
• Access online banking at least once
• Receive e-statements and maintain a valid email address

Additional features of the account regardless of the monthly requirements include:

• $50 minimum initial deposit
• Free bill pay

I don't see any mention of monthly fees. Also, I don't see any mention of refunds of ATM fees. At the bottom of the bank's personal checking page it states that the use of STAR network ATMs are free.

It appears that a branch visit is required to open an account. Branches are located in the Wisconsin cities of Sheboygan, Plymouth, Elkhart Lake, Chilton, Glendale, Appleton and Greenfield.

The bank's ratings for safety and soundness are a little weak: 3 stars (adequate) at BauerFinancial (based on 9/30/09 data) and 2 stars (below peer group) at Bankrate.com (based on 6/30/09 data). The bank has been a FDIC member since 1989 (FDIC Certificate # 27507).

Call 800-688-6031 today and have promo code: Checking1109 handy to take advantage of this offer.

• $50 minimum opening deposit
• No monthly fees (CSR)
• 0.51% APY on all balances as of 12/16/09 (see rate table)
• Requires payroll direct deposit. Without direct deposit, it'll be converted to Simply Free Checking (CSR)
• Online ACH transfer service
• Unlimited ATM fee reimbursements
• Free first order of checks
• No hard credit pull in the application. Just ChexSystem (CSR)

• my last 40 posts on checking and savings account bonuses

Open a select new PNC Personal Checking Account with qualifying direct deposit and get more than you expected, like $100 deposited in your account

• my last 40 posts on checking and savings account bonuses

Update 2/08/10: The offer has been extended to 3/15/2010. Refer to the Harris Bank's promo page for the full details.

Harris Bank has a checking account promotion in which you can earn up to $150 in cash. The details are described at harrisbank.com/checking250. Offer expires on 11/30/2009. Here are the steps required to earn the full $150:

• Open a Harris Interest-Checking Account
• $100 requires either: a) monthly direct deposit within 90 days of account opening, OR b) at least 5 online bill payments within 60 days of account opening
• $50 requires Harris savings account and the Auto Save option

Some of the important small print includes:

• $100 bonus is limited one offer per household. $50 Auto Save bonus is limited to 3 per household with savings accounts titled in different names
• $100 cash will be deposited into the checking account approximately 120 days after account opening
• $50 will be deposited into your savings account after Auto Save feature is activated
• Bonuses will be reported as interest income on IRS form 1099 INT

There's also an additional reward of $100 Dining Dough certificate that will be awarded at the time of account opening. However, the actual value is much less than $100 so I didn't include this above. Dining Dough certificates are issued by Restaurant.com, and you can get an idea of the real value of these at this MyMoneyBlog post. The post describes a past promotion in which they were offering $25 certificates for $2. One potential downside is that according to Harris Bank's small print, the value of the certificate will be reported on IRS form 1099 INT as interest. If they report the face value, you might lose money on this part of the deal.

Another downside to this deal is that it requires Harris Bank's Interest-Checking Account. The typical interest checking account has very low interest and monthly fees, and that is the case for this one. The interest rate is only 0.01%. To avoid a $15 monthly fee, you'll either need direct deposit or an average daily balance of $2,000. Minimum opening deposit is $100.

The savings accounts also have monthly fees. These fees can be waived by maintaining certain minimum balances, and also with the Auto Save option in which monthly amounts are automatically transferred from the checking to the savings account. The statement savings account requires a minimum transfer amount of $25 for the fees to be waived.

There may be a hard credit inquiry. According to the small print "All overdraft protection lines of credit, credit cards and loans are subject to credit approval."

There's an online application at the promotions page, and it also says you can apply by phone. The online application makes it look like it's available nationwide. In fact, the start of the application states that U.S. and Canadian residents can apply online. Note, the bank is closed for Veteran's Day. When I reported on one of their CD specials last year, I was told by a banking rep that accounts could be opened by people in any state.

If you prefer to open the CD at a branch, their offices are located in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Florida and Arizona.

The bank has been FDIC insured since 1947. Note, it has two FDIC charters: one based in Chicago, IL (FDIC Certificate # 16571) and one based in Scottsdale, AZ (FDIC Certificate # 24960).

Credit for this find goes to SlickDeals member kaysha912 who posted it at this SD thread.

Other Bank Bonuses

To find other bonus deals, please refer to my bank bonus page which has all of my recent bank bonus posts.

• Open a Free Checking Plus account by 11/27/2009
• Set up direct deposit of your entire paycheck (of at least $400) into your account within the first 60 days
• Get a National City Visa CheckCard and make at least 10 purchases within the first 60 days

This promotion does exist. To be eligible, you will need to apply through this chat and with approval, make the opening deposit at your local National City branch.

• $50 minimum opening balance
• Requires monthly automatic activity (direct deposit, online bill payment or ACH payment)
• Without automatic monthly activity, converted to Free Checking ($12 free for transfer)
• No maintenance fees
• Free checks
• No charges for use of non-National City ATMs (other bank may charge)

• Savings Account Weekly Rate Summary
• bank deals by state

• 1.15% APY $1K to $10K
• 1.40% APY $10K to $20K
• 1.50% APY $20K to $50K
• 1.75% APY $50K to $100K
• 2.00% APY $100K+

anyone can join Connexus Credit Union by first becoming a member of our Connexus Association.

• Savings Account Weekly Rate Summary
• bank deals by state

• 1.50% APY $1K to $10K
• 1.75% APY $10K to $20K
• 1.90% APY $20K to $50K
• 2.00% APY $50K to $100K
• 2.25% APY $100K+